"Across the US, low-performing school districts have undertaken a panoply of reforms to try to boost outcomes for students. This book examines two such efforts side-by-side in the same low-performing Memphis district to look for answers about why some succeed and others, not. Joshua L. Glazer and his coauthors illuminate the strategic decisions, dilemmas, and political dynamics that characterized the Achievement School District (ASD) and Shelby County Innovation Zone (iZone for short) between 2011 and 2020. Despite similar goals, their leaders and engineers occupied very different positions in relation to the communities that attended those schools. ASD was a state entity with the authority to remove schools from the control of the locally-elected school board to be staffed and run by charter schools. But these schools would be attended by students in the neighborhood. In other words, leadership would change, but the student body and buildings would remain the same.

The Shelby iZone, on the other hand, was an enclave within the larger district. Unlike the ASD, iZone schools experienced no change in governance, no charters or other organizations bringing in new ideas, and no influx of private money. Instead, the same people working within the same district under the authority of the same school board endeavored to chart a new and improved course forward through local changes to, such as new pedagogical techniques. Both, however, were evolving enterprises in which program leaders adapted their strategies to changing conditions on the ground, community feedback, and student learning outcomes. The comparison of these two organizations uncovers the relationship between the technical work of constructing high-performing instructional systems and the political process of assembling a broad coalition of supporters that coalesce around a shared problem definition. The authors explore the educational and political dynamics of school improvement, and the implications for redesigning new systems that achieve intellectual rigor and equity. Ultimately, Glazer et al. offer needed perspective on how community involvement can influence policy making and curriculum planning at underperforming urban schools"--.